Guest Blog: Playwright Chris Bush On STEEL at Sheffield Theatres

It always feels like a real privilege to make work in Sheffield, the city I grew up in and discovered what theatre could be. The Crucible has been incredibly significant to me throughout my career, and although I'm based in London now, it'll always feel like home.

Steel is, in some ways, a play about a difficult homecoming. Vanessa is the newly selected Labour candidate for metro mayor, but although she was born in the city, she's always been made to feel like an outsider.

One of the questions the piece asks is how we choose who represents us, and why representation matters. What qualifies a person to hold office? Who is fit to lead us? What power, if any, does any individual have to implement real change?

In particular, Steel explores what it takes to be a woman in politics, and how much has changed over the last 30 years. While rooted in a world of local government, its themes of gender, race and power should hopefully feel universal.

One of the really exciting things about this production is the opportunity it presents to explore such big ideas on a small, personal, human scale. The Studio at the Crucible is a fantastic space for feeling both epic and intimate at the same time (aided by Madeleine Girling's beautiful design).

This isn't a play that discusses its politics in a lofty, abstract way, but one that offers you a close-up look at a small group of flawed and fallible individuals who all have differing views on how to make things better. The personal is political, and vice versa - one can't be detached from the other.

In terms of size, this show couldn't be more different from my last project - a reimagining of Pericles for the National Theatre. I've gone from a cast of over 230 in the Olivier to just two here, and I love working at these extremes of scale.

Especially at this stage in my career, it feels really important that I don't write the same show twice - alongside Pericles and Steel, this year I've also opened a form-breaking new musical (The Assassination of Katie Hopkins), a play for young people (The Changing Room for National Theatre Connections) and an experimental, apocalyptic drama school show for a cast of 14 (Scenes from the End of the World).

This variety definitely makes me a better writer, and I'm always looking to experiment with new forms and ways of making.

Ultimately, the genre or scale of a project doesn't really matter - it all comes down to the story. I'm just looking for interesting ways to tell truthful, human stories with something to say about the world we live in.

I'd love that to include more massive, community shows like Pericles, there'll definitely be more musicals to come (serious theatre types who look down their noses at musicals is a real pet hate of mine), and I'll always come back to Sheffield any time they'll have me.

In the meantime, I hope Steel feels like a show we need right now - a show which asks who has power, and how they got there.

Steel at Sheffield Theatres 13 September-6 October

Photo credit: Mark Douet

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